Jumping to Conclusions
The story is told about a minister who had to evacuate his home because of a wildfire in the area and who was forced to stay in a crowded hotel a short distance away, along with many other residents of the area who had also fled their homes. Because of the unavoidable overcrowding at the hotel, the minister was told that he would have to share a room with someone else. He agreed to this, but after going to the hotel room and meeting the other occupant, he waited till the man left for a while, then returned to the hotel desk where he asked if his valuables could be temporarily held in the hotel safe because he did not think his roommate looked very trustworthy. The hotel clerk assured him there would be no problem to do this – in fact, they had just done so for the other occupant of the room for the same reason.
We may smile at stories like this, or when people say that the only exercise some people get is jumping to conclusions and running people down, but the Bible is full of examples of how jumping to conclusions can be a serious problem that we should not underestimate.
In the book of Joshua, for example, we are told that a tragedy was narrowly averted when Israel conquered Canaan and divided the land. The tribes that had settled on the east side of the Jordan river built what seemed to be a great altar. But when the other Israelite tribes who had settled west of the Jordan heard of this, they went and angrily confronted their eastern brethren, accusing them of erecting a forbidden altar. It was only when the eastern tribes explained that the structure was not an altar, but a memorial to their unity with the western tribes, called “A Witness Between Us,” that great bloodshed was avoided (Joshua 22:9-34).
The Old Testament gives many other examples of individuals and groups looking at appearances and presuming the worst. That is why, when God chose David, the youngest and least of his brothers, to replace Saul as king of Israel, he told the prophet Samuel “Do not look at appearances … man looks outward, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
In the New Testament we find many examples (often paralleling Old Testament ones) of people jumping to unwarranted conclusions, too. In the Gospel of John, when Jesus and his disciples passed by a man who had been born blind, the disciples asked “Did this man sin or his parents?” and Jesus had to tell them neither was the case (John 9:1-3). The disciples had presumed the man’s misfortune was the result of sin, just as Job’s friends had thought the same of Job in the Old Testament story. Similarly, in the book of Acts, the inhabitants of Jerusalem presumed the Spirit-empowered disciples were drunk (Acts 2:12-15) just as, in the Old Testament, the priest Eli thought Samuel’s mother was drunk when she was praying fervently (1 Samuel 1:9-17).
In all these cases, we see how easy it can be to jump to conclusions, and realize why the Bible warns us against this and counsels us not to be guilty of it. For example, God commanded the Israelites to not act on partial evidence, telling them that accusations must not only be established by multiple witnesses (Deuteronomy 19:15), but also that in such cases “you must inquire, probe and investigate” (Deuteronomy 13:14) – a threefold command to ascertain things thoroughly before arriving at a conclusion.
We can take three important guidelines from what the Bible tells us about arriving at conclusions too hastily:
Realize that things are not always as they seem. Proverbs 18:17 tells us “In a lawsuit the first to speak seems right, until someone comes forward and cross-examines.” It is all too easy to misjudge a situation and, as a result, the motives of others.
Don’t judge situations till you are sure you have all the facts. Just as many passages in Deuteronomy and elsewhere in the Old Testament urge us to get all the facts before forming a conclusion regarding a person or situation, the apostle James tells us “Take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak” (James 1:19).
Give the benefit of the doubt whenever possible. The apostle Paul tells us, “love thinks no evil; believes all things” (1 Corinthians 13:5-7). As Christians we should want to believe the best of others as much as this is possible. There is nothing wrong with being cautious, in pursuing a “trust but verify” approach when that seems appropriate, but this should always be done in an attitude of love and hoping for the best.
Ultimately, as Christians, we have an added responsibility to apply these principles and to trust others, whenever possible, as we would want to be trusted.
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